1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an autonomous mobile device which autonomously moves to a destination.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional autonomous mobile device autonomously moves to a destination while avoiding obstacles by using map information showing the shape of obstacles such as walls, and a horizontal distance from a host device to the obstacle measured by a distance sensor (for instance, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-157625).
Meanwhile, zones into which the entry by the autonomous mobile device should be avoided are not necessarily limited to zones containing obstacles. For example, in an environment of a hospital or the like, as zones into which the entry by the autonomous mobile device should be avoided, there are stepped zones such as stairs where the autonomous mobile device is unable to travel and zones such as treatment rooms of patients that would be dangerous if the autonomous mobile device were to travel therein. In the foregoing case, even if it is a zone where an obstacle does not exist, it is necessary to perform control to avoid entry of the autonomous mobile device into such zone. Nevertheless, with the autonomous mobile device described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-157625, it is not possible to detect the foregoing zones into which entry by the autonomous mobile device should be avoided unless an obstacle exists therein. Thus, the autonomous mobile device is unable to move while autonomously avoiding zones into which entry should be avoided even though no obstacle exists therein.